


Coming Home

by LapsedPacifist



Category: Torchwood, Torchwood (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: Audio Drama: Hostile Environment, Gen, Happy Ending, Homelessness, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, POV Third Person, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-06-29 17:13:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19834837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LapsedPacifist/pseuds/LapsedPacifist
Summary: Tyler was finally willing to admit it — he was homeless, and it wasn't just a temporary situation. But he would rather literary die before asking Jack for help, and the way things were going, that was a big possibility.Of course he hadn't planned on a future version of one Captain Jack Harkness stumbling upon him in an alleyway, and helping — just a little, just enough.(That "You could've just talked to me" near the end of the episode killed me so my ghost decided to write this)





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> this is because I had to pause the audio multiple times to even get through it — I cried at like two different points!!  
> tyler definitely did not deserve that! So here is he, talking to jack a lot sooner! If there are any inconsistencies, I apologize, I haven't listened to other God among us audios or finished Aliens among us (but im close to the end there -- damn you, Yvonne!)
> 
> Short recap for anyone that hasn't listened to the ep: Tyler Steele almost worked for torchwood (Jack introduced himself by shagging him and then dying on him in an explosion) but didnt, so he casually helped them (and himself) from time to time. he ended up homeless and discovered that the homeless were hunted by drones that, when caught, gave them a choice between experimental drugs and death. Tyler tried to get the attention of Torchwood (Gwen, mr Colchester, even Andy) but they all ignored him.

There was much to be done if they wanted to finish the project in a reasonable amount of time, but Jack couldn’t be seen taking point at this particular time. This was a busy year for him in Cardiff, so he would have to remain in the shadows and hope that whoever was designated leader would actually know what they were doing and not—

“Could you spare some change, please?”

He was stopping and pulling out his wallet even before his conscious mind caught up with his actions. It was raining, not many people outside, and the two figures huddled together were soaked. A woman and a very familiar looking man, Jack realized as he was bending down to give her the notes. 

“Tyler?” he asked, unable to keep the incredulousness out of his voice. “Holy shit, what happened to you?”

There was minuscule movement on Tyler’s side, just enough to confirm he wasn’t dead yet, but nothing more. 

“Shit,” Jack cursed again. He most definitely didn’t remember this.

“You know him?” the woman asked.

“Yeah, but I had no idea… Why hadn’t he— You his friend?”

She shrugged. “Maybe.”

He gave her two fifty pound notes. “Thanks,” he said, “for looking after him. I think.”

“You taking him?”

“Can’t leave him here. Stubborn idiot, should’ve called me,” he added, but there was no anger. What had happened to Tyler? He kneeled down next to him, oblivious to puddles and dirt that were already staining his trousers and gently brushed his hand across Tyler’s damp but warm face. Was he feverish? Just how sick was he?

“He said he was going to get help, from somewhere, to get the drones away from us. But he hasn’t. Nobody wants to talk to him. I told him it would happen, and he didn’t want to listen to me!”

He was only half listening to the woman, but that sounded like trouble. “Drones?”

“Haven’t you seen them? It’s that app, the one everyone’s using nowadays. People tag you and then the drones come, and the drugs…”

“Drugs…” Tyler mumbled, repeating the word. 

“Tyler’s been picked up more often than us, he just doesn’t want to blend in,” the woman told him. “So they spot him, and like the good samaritans they are, they tag him. Ohh, poor sods, they will be taken to a safe haven, they think. Bastards.”

“Alright, I know who he wanted to talk to. I’ll get it sorted, I swear.”

“That’s what he said,” the woman laughed. “And look how well that’s worked out. Stupid kid.”

* * *

He couldn’t feel his face — so no change there, then. His left hand, though, felt like it was on fire, which could’ve been an improvement, for all that he knew. Couldn’t really be any worse than it already was, could it.

Everything had gone to shit and he wanted to hit past self for all the dumb remarks he’d made, because…

Hold on, he was warm. He was  _ never  _ warm. Either cold and shivering or so hot he wanted to tear off all his clothes, there was no in between. And he was lying on something soft, and nothing smelled, and there was silence and had he died and gone to heaven?

He opened his eyes. No, not heaven, just a hotel room — which actually was heaven for him, at this point in his life, and wasn't that a sad thought. It was a very nice one, with a king sized bed, windows spawning the entirety of one wall and Jack asleep in a chair next to him.

Wait.

Oh no. Oh shit. Oh no and shit!

“I know you’re awake,” said Jack and raised his head from where it had fallen onto his chest. “Don’t move too much. It’ll take a couple of hours to flush all the drugs from your system.”

“What are you doing here? And where am I? What happened?” His voice was all scratchy and it hurt his throat, trying to speak.

Jack stood up and fetched him a glass of water. “You don’t remember? I mean, I would be surprised if you did, but still.”

Tyler shook his head and then immediately regretted it as the mother of all splitting headaches took residence there. Jack was immediately by his side, helping him sit so that he could carefully sip the offered water.

“Thanks,” he rasped.

“No need to thank me,” Jack said, “I only wish— Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I—” Tyler really, really didn’t want to be having this conversation right now. “I just— I couldn’t.”

“I would’ve helped you. I hope you know that.”

“Sure.”

Jack didn’t look completely convinced, but he still nodded and sat back down. “Now, tell me about these drones.”

* * *

“That was my idea!”

“And as a reward, you get to stay here, where it’s warm, quiet and  _ safe. _ ”

“What, so this is for my own good?”

“Well, yes! You can barely stand up, Tyler!”

“So what?”

“So, you’re more of a liability than an asset right now. Look, I’m very grateful that you told me about this and about your idea and I’m trying to return the favor.”

“By locking me in a room?”

“I’m not— for fuck’s sake, Tyler, I just don’t want you to get hurt, is that  _ so hard to understand?” _

They stared at each other, barely half a metre apart, both stemming with anger and, at least in Jack’s case, desire. Yep, that was always there, except when talking to evil egotistical maniacs that wanted to either take over or blow up Earth. And even then sometimes…

He snapped back to staring at Tyler. “If I leave now you’ll just follow me.”

“Correct,” Tyler smiled.

“And I can’t sedate you because of all the nasty crap still in you. I can’t leave you at Torchwood because of reasons, so I guess there’s only one thing left,” he said and leaned closer, his breath warm on Tyler's cheek.

Tyler took the last step and they were kissing, soft and gentle, but Tyler was already opening his mouth wider to—

The cuffs snapped shut and they sprang apart, Tyler staring at Jack with betrayal and confusion. His hands were cuffed together behind his back and he tried to pry them apart with no success

“Tying you up and leaving you here until the staff comes and finds you in about three hours, when I will be either done or dead,” Jack told him.

“But you need me, Jack! I’m good with computers! I can help you!” Tyler pleaded, but Jack only shook his head, took his coat and headed for the door.

“Jack, please, don’t leave me!”

* * *

“I can’t believe I’m taking you with me.”

“I’m just that irresistible.”

“That’s my line, and no, that’s definitely not the reason.”

“Are you saying I’m not, and I quote, ‘drop dead gorgeous?’” Tyler pouted from the back seat, where he’d been delegated after he’d announced his preference of not getting squashed flat by the heavy drone currently occupying the front passenger seat. They were following its distress signal, trying to locate the base before the backup the drone had called caught up with them.

Jack decided to not answer, which was rather smart on his part. 

“Here’s the thing,” he said after a minute of silence. “You can’t tell me this happened.”

“What?”

“I mean it. The next time you see me you do  _ not  _ mention this adventure, alright? Pretend like it didn’t happen.”

“Why?”

And they were at the ‘why’ stage, wonderful. “You probably won’t accept it if I say ‘just because’, hm?”

“Nope,” Tyler admitted.

“They never do,” mumbled Jack. “Listen, this is going to sound crazy—”

“More crazy than aliens in Cardiff?”

“You didn’t want to believe us,” pointed out Jack, but Tyler only shrugged: “And I was wrong. Sorry. It can happen to the best.”

“Don’t I know it,” Jack sighed. “Alright, here’s the thing. I’m a time traveler and I’m from the future.”

He waited for the inevitable bullshit, but Tyler remained silent, almost like he was waiting for something. “Yes?” he tentatively asked Jack. “And what?”

“And,” Jack said, “the dashing and incredible Jack Harkness of the year 2019 does not remember anything about this, so you cannot tell him, do you understand? You could cause a paradox.”

“So where— sorry,  _ when  _ are you from?”

“You’re taking this better than I’ve expected,” admitted Jack.

“Well, I’ve behaved like a fool once, which is more than enough for me. Besides, this is you we’re talking about. After finding out you’re immortal, I can believe anything you tell me. Well, almost anything. I mean, the next thing you could say was ‘I’m not actually from Earth’ or some shit like that.”

There was very suspicious silence for a moment, and then Tyler threw up his arms: “Oh come on, you’ve gotta be kidding! You’re an alien too? I’ve had sex with an alien?”

“I’m still human, don’t worry. Actually, you needn’t have worried even if I weren’t, definitely no alien STIs here.”

And didn’t  _ that  _ bring up a whole bunch of very nasty memories— “Oh shit,” Tyler breathed out, almost in shock. “I’ve gotta get tested. Oh fuck, I’ve gotta get tested!”

He didn’t look at Jack in the mirror, rather kept staring at his shoes, his breathing shallow and rapid.

Jack swore under his breath, but he couldn’t afford to pull over and help Tyler out of what looked like a panic attack, since their pursuers weren’t far behind.

“Tyler,” he instead commanded, “look at me. Come on, focus on my voice and look at me. Everything is going to be fine — and not Torchwood  _ fine,  _ but proper fine, I swear. I’m going to make it okay, alright? But you’ve gotta listen to me. Listen, and breathe.”

* * *

Three fire drones were hovering in front of the building the signal was pointing to, which was too big of a coincidence to really be one.

“Stay behind me,” warned him Jack, “being burned alive is a horrible way to go.”

That almost stopped Tyler in his tracks. “Have you ever been—” he began, but seeing Jack’s slumped shoulders and shaking hands realised he already knew the answer, and it was horrifying.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “You probably don’t want to be reminded of it.”

Jack let out a short, low laugh: “That’s kinda impossible. Anywhere you are, any _when_ — just look around you and I guarantee you will be able to see at least five different objects that have killed me in ten different ways. If I wasn’t as magnificent as I was, I wouldn’t ever want to go outside my room. I’ve probably been killed by anything you can possibly imagine, and then some. You don’t have to worry about me.”

They were making their way towards the back of the building to find an entrance not guarded by those death drones, trying not to be spotted, but Tyler had never before seen Jack reveal so much about himself without obviously evading the questions.

“Does anyone?”

“Does anyone what?”

“Worry about you.  _ Care.  _ When was the last time somebody asked you how you were?”

Jack didn’t answer. They reached the entrance, which was of course locked, but Jack simply hit a few buttons on that wrist strap and they swung open.

“Oh, so it does work,” Tyler hummed. The silence was uncomfortable, and so he did what he always did in awkward situations: attempt to joke his way out of it. “Thank God nobody installed any wifi blockers in here.”

“Yeah, well, we might want to be silent if we don’t want to get detected,” Jack advised him while rolling his eyes. “Now come on, and be careful!”

Tyler stepped through the doors: “Yes, mum, whatever you say.”

“Well, that’s definitely not what I thought you would be calling me, but whatever goes.”

* * *

“There’s a drone in there with him,” Jack whispered as they stood outside an unassuming doorway. “Only one though.”

“If we’re fast enough, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“That’s a big ‘should’.”

“Well, since I’m the affected party in this case, I should make decisions,” Tyler hissed louder than he wanted and Jack’s hand landed on his mouth.

“Hush,” Jack whispered, “and remember who the Captain is here.”

Tyler tried to mumble something around his hand and when he realised he couldn’t, licked it instead. Jack gave him a pointed look and then motioned towards the room: “Go for the computer.”

“Roger,” whispered Tyler. “They say that, right?”

“Right,” confirmed Jack and kicked down the door.

The first thing Tyler saw was a fire drone, hovering above the table in the middle of the room and his heart sped up just at the sight of it. There was humming in his ears and he wasn’t even sure what Jack was doing as his vision was now focused on the drone and the drone alone.

But he had a task to do. He forced himself to look away, to the corner of the room where a scrawny man was shaking with fear next to a row of computer screens. Using the wall as a support he half walked, half crawled his way towards the unlocked computer and tried to ignore the pain in his stomach.  


“Who are you?” demanded the shaking man. “What are you doing here? This is private property! You have no right!”

At that, Jack pulled out his gun. “We have every right,” he said. “You’re Oblation. You’ve created drones to either kill or test drugs on the homeless, so be very careful as to what you say next.”

“They were only homeless,” wailed the man, “nobody missed them! Besides, the drugs were all approved and they all gave verbal consent!”

“I really don’t think being threatened into consenting is fair,” said Tyler. “I was one of those people you tested your drugs on, and it really fucking hurt!”

The system in front of him clearly pointed to this being a one-man operation and he pulled out his phone, the drone still hovering uselessly above the table.

“So why did you do it?” demanded Jack.

“I worked for 3Sol before it went under, their tech department. I took the drones, and then I took the city contract — I had to earn cash somehow, didn’t I?”

Tyler almost couldn’t believe him: “And you earned it by burning people alive. You killed so many innocent people, and for what? A middle sized condo in the middle of fucking nowhere?! For what?!”

“How many people did you kill?” Jack asked, in a very calm tone that Tyler thought was perhaps a bit _too_ calm.

“I don’t know,” the man whispered. “I… I didn’t track that kind of data.”

“Bullshit!” yelled Tyler and looked up from his phone back to the computers: “You tracked everything, of course you tracked that too!”

“How many people did you kill?” repeated Jack, his voice still even. “It’s a very simple question.”

The man whimpered under his stare. “I don’t know, I swear!”

In that moment, Tyler made up his mind. “It doesn’t matter, does it?” he asked. “Because you were right. Nobody misses the homeless. Nobody missed me, nobody saw anything strange happening… So even if you do somehow end up in court over this, you’ll present the benefits to medical research this program of yours had and walk away scot-free, huh?”

There was  _ hope  _ in the man’s eyes, the fucker.

“Well, I don’t think so,” Tyler said and lifted up his phone, tapping on the screen.

Jack’s eyes widened in surprise as the drone behind them whirred to life, flying over to the scrawny man. 

**“Attention. This is Oblation. You have been reported as homeless. Is that correct?”**

That voice. Tyler knew he was going to have so many nightmares, all about that mechanical, inhuman voice. 

“No, no, no it’s not,” the man sputtered.

**“Incorrect response,”** the drone announced.

“But!” protested the man and dove for the computers, pushing Tyler aside. He hit the floor with his shoulder and sparks of pain danced behind his eyelids. He could hear the drone above him, but he just couldn’t summon the energy to move.

**“As part of our safe street initiative, Oblation offers you a choice. Take part in a clinical trial or death.”**

“This isn’t right!”

**“Drugs. Or. Death.”**

“Life isn’t often this simple,” laughed Tyler. “C’mon, pick one. You gotta. You’ve… Got… To…”

* * *

He didn’t remember much from that point onward. Waking up in a soft, warm bed in an unknown place had a distinct feeling of  _ déjà vu,  _ especially once he saw Jack sitting next to him.

“We should really stop meeting like this,” he said. Jack gave him a small smile and shifted until he was the picture of a stern professor about to yell at someone.

“You tried to kill someone.”

“So he isn’t dead?” asked Tyler and couldn’t decide whether he felt relieved or disappointed.

“I didn’t say that. But Tyler, you tried to burn a man to death today.”

“One, nothing he hadn’t done to dozens of other people. Two, he had a choice. I’ve picked drugs so many times half my brain is probably dead, and I’m still fine.”

“Torchwood  _ fine  _ is not fine, Tyler,” reminded him Jack. “Still, you—”

“He deserved it,” Tyler said. “I don’t care what you say, I don’t care about your ‘pure Torchwood’ and shit, he deserved it. And I don’t give a fuck if you think I’m wrong.”

Jack slowly shook his head: “That’s not what I’m trying to say. You were in a truly horrible situation and tried to do your best to survive and I am very proud of you. The man — his name was Ben, by the way — is dead.” Then he said with a far gentler voice than Tyler was expecting: “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I couldn’t… I didn’t want you to see me like this,” Tyler admitted, his head hanging low so that he didn’t need to look Jack in the face. “I wanted to show you that I could handle it, that I could handle anything — I wanted to be better for you.”

“Look, I am probably one of the few that completely understand,” Jack confessed. “I’ve been there. I remember being so sure it would only be a matter of days, but… Life is strange that way. Ugly.”

Tyler stared at Jack, trying and failing to picture the strong, confident and charming Captain in front of him in his role not a day ago, with all the feelings of despair, abandonment and hopelessness that accompanied him.

“But… How?” he whispered and then realised it didn’t matter. “Nevermind.”

“I’ve lived for such a long time that there are very few things that I haven’t done or that have not been done to me.”

“But you’re  _ you.  _ Out of everyone…”

At that Jack let out a mirthless laugh and gently took hold of Tyler’s hands, bringing them up to his chest. “Tyler, please,  _ never  _ put me on a pedestal. I’m no dashing hero or a shinning knight.”

“Well, you’re certainly dashing,” Tyler smiled at Jack while he kissed Tyler’s hands. They were small, chaste kisses. Innocent, if that word could ever be applied to Jack's anything.  


“You know you can rely on me, right? No matter what, if you just call and explain. I can’t guarantee I’ll always personally be there, but you won’t be left alone.”

They simply looked at each other for what felt like an unending stretch of time but it must have been far shorter before Jack abruptly stood up. “Alright then, you have to meet your landlady.”

“My what?” asked Tyler. 

Jack leaned down and pecked on the lips. “Landlady. I assume that since you were out on the streets, you had nowhere to live? Well, now you do. C’mon, up and about, we have to walk there.”

“Right. Public face.”

“Concrete and cheekbones,” Jack smiled. “But when you’re with me, you can let the mask slip. Anytime you want.”

Tyler didn’t know what to say. “Thanks,” he whispered. It seemed so inadequate. “I mean that,” he added.

“It’s what I’m here for,” said Jack and handed him a jacket. “Take this, it’s not very warm outside.”

He took it and slipped it on, admiring the warm material. But there was something else. “How do you do it?” he asked. “How do you keep going?” 

“I dunno,” shrugged Jack far more carelessly than he had any right to. “When you’re immortal, you just kinda have to.”

That was awful. “You keep living until you stop?”

“Yeah.” Jack sounded defeated.

“What about your mask?” Tyler pressed. “Do  _ you  _ ever let that slip?”

Jack grinned: “Oh, there used to be someone. But… Well, not anymore.”

“You could… Show me…? If you like—”

“No. Trust me, hah, you don’t wanna see it.”

To be fair, that was true. Tyler didn’t  _ want  _ to, but for Jack… He had a feeling Jack needed this, needed it far more than anyone else, and yet he was constraining himself, out of worry for  _ Tyler.  _ Like he was worth more than—

He didn’t want to go there.

“Alright,” he agreed. “Let’s go see that landlady.”

**Author's Note:**

> some dialog stolen from the episode, thank u Ash Darby!


End file.
